hooked on crochet & always knitting

Author: Rachel

I’d been looking for a good interchangeable needle case for ages. The plastic case that my set came in fell apart in about a minute. Unfortunately, all the ones I looked at online or in person were either too expensive, not very good quality, or too small to hold the whole set. I know what you’re thinking. “You get what you pay for!” While I agree with that to some extent, I think it’s worth it to try to save when you can AND still get a quality product. 🙂

If you’ve ever searched “interchangeable needle case” on Google, you’ll know that they can get pretty expensive. The cheapest I found was $13 or $14 on Amazon (without shipping), but they can easily reach $30 or more if you buy them from websites that specialize in knitting-related items. I’m sure that $30 doesn’t seem like much to some people, but my priorities are this: if I spend less on knitting accessories, I have more to spend on good yarn! ❤

With this in mind, I went on a search for a cheaper case that would meet my needs. I’m not picky; I just wanted something large enough to hold all my needles, cords, and maybe even some DPNs, with a sturdy, cushioned material that would protect them while in my project bag. I dropped into a few local craft stores and that’s when I found the perfect case.

I found this baby at Hobby Lobby in the art supplies section. It’s supposed to be for pencils, but it’s just perfect for knitting needles! There’s a ton of room since it has two compartments, and it’s very sturdy. The best part is I used a coupon and paid about $15 for it. It was way cheaper than anything I found online and way better quality than the actual needle cases they sell at the local craft stores.

In the first compartment, I have the entirety of my interchangeable needle set, and I keep some extra circulars and some DPNs in the second compartment. And there’s room to spare!

Despite how much it holds, the case itself is about 11″ x 8″ x 1.5″ so it closes and zips up to a reasonable size. It fits easily into all my bags so I’m pleased with how compact it is. Also, they carry different sizes, so I have a smaller one with my 16″ hat needle set that only cost me about $9.

I was very pleased to find a cheaper alternative so I wanted to share for others who have been looking for a good, cheap case. These cases are Global Art brand and come in several different sizes. I bought the 120 (pencil) capacity and the 48 capacity cases for my sets. Also, I’m not being paid or anything for this; I just thought it was a good idea.

So how about you? Have you found an unusual/unique way to store your needles? Leave me a comment and let me know! 🙂

I’m so thrilled to say that I finally finished my first sweater! I made a WIP post about this in May, but I actually cast on this baby way back in February. I went into it knowing that it would take me a while before I could wear my finished project. Sure enough, a little under 5 months later, I found myself finally blocking it and getting ready to put it all together. To be honest, I expected it to take longer than 5 months. It was a large project, and I’m not a very fast knitter. Luckily the pattern called for worsted weight yarn on very large needles so it really flew by!

This project was also the first time that I used mattress stitch. The pattern was worked in four pieces so some seaming was necessary. Having a little bit of experience in sewing and making clothing really helped me here. I was able to set in the sleeves with no issue, and all of edges matched up!

And have I mentioned how much I love the colors in this yarn? The green and blues are so eye-catching, but the grey really helps tone them down so they don’t overwhelm.

I used Caron Big Cakes in Pistachio Macaron. Two skeins was enough for the whole project with a large portion left over. I’m thinking about making some accessories to go with it. Maybe a hat with a faux fur pom pom? I’ve been wanting an excuse to buy some pom poms, ha ha!

All in all, I’m super happy with my new sweater. I can’t wait to wear it this fall. I was burning up just wearing it for a few minutes for pictures, but it’s going to be so cozy and comfortable when the weather is nice and cool in October. It’ll be great! ❤

I’m already looking forward to making another sweater. I have so many wonderful patterns in my library on Ravelry. I think the hardest part will be deciding which to try next. I definitely want to attempt knitting one in one piece. No weaving in ends!

For the past several months, I’ve been considering how I could improve things over here at From Bad to Worsted. One thing that repeatedly came to mind was the need for a redesign; new layout, new content, new name. As much as I love “From Bad to Worsted”, I started to feel like the name was a little unwieldy for a blog. Too long, not easy enough to remember, and not very indicative of what my content is.
It took me weeks and weeks of brainstorming to not only come up with something that fit all of my criteria, but also wasn’t already taken. I knew as soon as I thought up “Stitched Serene” that it was the one. I also knew I wanted a clean, laid-back look to match the name.

Other than the visual changes, I have also started an Instagram account for all of my knitting and crochet adventures! If you’d like to follow me and see what I’m up to, you can find me @stitchedserene or by clicking one of the pictures in the sidebar to the right under the Instagram heading. I love following other yarnies and bloggers, so I’m keeping an eye out for others to follow as well. 😉

One last thing I want to mention is I made a minor update to my Tough Stuff socks pattern. A reader kindly pointed out some areas that needed some clarification, so I added a couple sections to make the pattern easier to understand. Hopefully it’ll help anyone who may have had issues with the pattern, and thank you again to the reader who brought this to my attention. 🙂

Well, I supposed that about wraps up this update! Thank you to everyone who’s supported me and my blog ’til now! I hope to keep seeing you around as I continue my knitting/crochet adventure. If anyone has any feedback on the new look, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

Next to socks, the project that I’ve been looking forward to the most since I started knitting has definitely been a sweater. I absolutely love bundling up in a nice, squishy sweater. And what could be better than wearing one that’s handknit!?

I wanted to start with a complicated pattern like the Jamestown pullover I mentioned in this post waaaaay back in 2016, but once the time came, I decided it’d be better if I used a simpler pattern until I figured out the basics. Enter Cropped Boatneck Sweater by Vi Bui!

I’ve finished the body of the sweater, and I’m more than halfway through the first sleeve now! In this pattern, the body is worked in two panels, front and back, and each sleeve is knit separate from the body and attached later. I know there are ways to make sweaters with no seams, but I thought that making each part of the sweater first and sewing them together would be a good way to help me understand the structure of a sweater before I try more complicated patterns.

One of my favorite things about this project is the yarn I chose. I loved working with Caron Cakes yarn in my Stitch Sampler Shawl, so I grabbed two skeins of Caron’s Big Cakes for my sweater project. The colorway is Pistachio Macaron, and it’s working up so nice!

I knew that this was the perfect colorway for my project as soon as I saw it. It has all of my favorite colors, and I really love the way that it’s speckled throughout, especially in the grey sections! It’s also super soft, and since this pattern is knit on large needles, it has wonderful drape~

This yarn is also self-striping so when I worked the front panel of the body, I just let the yarn do its thing, but when I worked the back panel, I matched the stripes myself. It required a little bit of extra work, but I’m very happy with how it’s working out. I’m doing the same thing with the sleeves so hopefully it looks nice. -fingers crossed-

Besides this, I have two other projects on my needles at the moment. This one has had my complete attention though. I can’t wait to finish it up, sew it together, and show it off! It’s too hot to wear it much now, but once fall comes around, I’m never going to take it off.

Several years ago, I made some cactuar plushes as Christmas gifts for my brother-in-laws. They were a huge success so I wanted to add on to their growing plush collection this year with another set of iconic Final Fantasy creatures: chocobo!

Aren’t they so adorable!? They were a little harder to make than I thought they would be, but I’m very satisfied with the finished product. I’m already planning on making a couple for me and T after my fingers recover. (The head feathers were so tiny, I could barely hold them when I was crocheting them. It was actually kind of painful!)

One of the reasons I’m so glad (and relieved) that they came out so well is because I had an accident while making them. I had thought that the pattern called for worsted weight yarn, but it was fingering weight! (Oops!) Since I only had worsted weight to work with, I just went ahead with the pattern. It was too late at that point to buy different yarn or find another project. (I seriously finished these little guys the day before I gifted them. It was a close call!)

When I did gift them, they were a huge hit! The recipients seemed super pleased and even took all the family Christmas photos with their chocobo. I was really excited to see how much they liked them.

If you’re interested in crocheting one these cuties, the pattern is Small Chocobo by Joey Kuan on Ravelry. I just used a bunch of yarn that I had sitting in my stash; a combination of Caron Simply Soft in Pumpkin, Sunshine, and White and Red Heart Super Saver in Cafe Latte. Even though the pattern calls for safety eyes, I couldn’t find any in time to attach them so I used bits of black yarn instead.